


The Desolate Future

by idemandahug



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Future, Gen, Guns, Plot Twists, Post-Nuclear War, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-24
Updated: 2015-05-02
Packaged: 2018-03-19 11:12:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3608010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idemandahug/pseuds/idemandahug
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>America tests out a time machine that he and Japan created together. But when he arrives in the distant future, it turns out to be very different from what he would have expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was my first ever fanfiction. I originally published it on Fanfiction.Net under the name SakuraMoriChan, and since I was thinking of uploading most of my old fics here I figured I might as well start with this one. Since this was my first fanfiction, the writing in the first few chapters is pretty bad, unfortunately. I like to believe it improves in later chapters, but there's no denying that the quality of writing starts rather poorly. I'm planning on rewriting most of my fanfics when I begin to upload them here, though I don't think I'll do that for this one. I like the idea of being able to come back to this story to see how far I've come, if that makes any sense. I'll most likely be updating this at a once a week pace. This is embarrassing to admit, but while this is my first fic and I started it about three years ago... I have yet to actually finish it. I'm hoping that by the time this version is up to date I'll have managed to complete it, somehow. Well, I'll stop taking up your time. Thank you for reading. :)

America sighed impatiently, taking another bite out of his hamburger. What was taking Japan so long? He had said that he was only doing a few tests.

He glanced at some of the paintings Japan kept around his home. It all seemed pretty boring, just like the stuff England kept at his home.

America's eyes lit up as an idea came to him. Japan had said they shouldn't tell anyone yet since someone could steal it, or their invention might not work at all, but surely it'd be fine if he only told England? He'd always been into that timey wimey...stuff.

Plus he would have something to brag to him about.

He quickly dialed the number on his cell phone, trying to ignore the fact that he had seemed to of memorised it. After a couple of rings a very tired voice answered.

"What the hell do you want?" England snapped

America looked down at his watch. It was around midday. Since he was at Japan's house that would of meant it was around 3:AM England's home.

Oops.

"Hiya, Iggy" America said brightly (Choosing to ignore any complaints the Brit made at his nickname) "Me and Japan have been working on something super cool! Even you're going to be impressed with this!" He finished this sentence with his famous laugh. "Sure, Japan did a lot of the technical stuff but it was so my idea, so-"

"Look, America" England cut in. "Can't this wait till tomorrow?" he asked in an exasperated tone. "It's the middle of the night and I have a meeting in the morning. We can talk later if it's that important, alright?

"Wait, wait don't hang up! And it is really important it's a-"

The line went dead

"Time machine..." America finished, a little late. He sighed again, looking at his phone. He wanted to hang out with England more often, but England always seemed annoyed with him for some reason. America smiled to himself. Even England will think he's amazing when he reveals that he helped build an actual working time machine! Although, knowing him, he'll still find something to complain about.

America looked at his phone sadly before placing it on the table and standing up. He might as well see how Japan was doing.

"Japaaaaaan! Are you done yet?" America called as he walked into the Japanese style garden.

Japan turned away from what he was working on and smiled at the American.

"Ah, America-san" Japan said warmly. "I'm nearly finished. It should only take a few more minutes." He smiled again.

America blinked. Things must be going really well if Japan was acting so happy!

The two of them had been working on their project for nearly a year. America had first gotten the idea when he saw a TV show at England's house (something about a blue box?) and immediately went to Japan about it. Japan had seemed skeptical at first but eventually agreed to help America. As the months went by they made more and more positive results until even Japan had to admit that it seemed like their project was going to become a reality.

"That should do it" Japan said, taking a step back from the almost capsule like machine that seemed very out of place in his garden.

"Seriously?" America asked, running next to the Japanese man. "You mean it's actually finished?" America couldn't believe it. After months of hard work, they were finally going to make history.

"It should be" Japan said. His eyes suddenly started shinning "I've also added a few extra features for safety. For example, the door automatically opens in the event of a power failure and-"

"Japan" America interupted him before he could go into a long, and proberly boring, speech. "Does it travel through time or not?"

"...It should" Japan said hesitantly. "But we still need to test it and-"

"So let's test it now!" America said excitedly, running towards the machine.

"What? America-san, wait! It might not be safe, we should-"

"Aw, come on! You've done like a million safety tests on this thing! I just want see if it works."

Japan sighed."Alright, America-san...but...please be careful." He sometimes wondered why he even bothered arguing with America. If he did then America would just make that dejected puppy face until he got what he wanted. Japan wasn't sure what America did if that method failed, he never got that far.

"YES!" America cried happily. He opened the door to the machine, practically jumped inside.

"But, America" Japan said. He was already starting to regreat his decision. "Only try to go forward a few minutes. And don't do anything dangerous. It's a very delicate machine and I don't know how easily it can break."

"Okay, okay" America grabbed the door handle. "Anything else?"

"Just...please be careful"

"What are you, my mom?" America laughed. "I'm always careful, I'm the hero! He grinned before shutting the door.

Japan watched the machine anxiously, trying not to list the many things that might go wrong in his head.

America looked around the cramped capsule. Since there was a chair right in the middle there was hardly any room to stand. There was a small insition in the wall were he had to type how many minutes, hours, days or years he wanted to go forward or back.

"I should proberly just go forward about 10 minutes...Japan would just worry if I'm too long..." He typed this into the machine. His hand hovered over the "start" button.

"Why am I hesitating?" He murmured "Nothing can go wrong!"

He sat down in the chair. He was just excited or something. He obviously wasn't scared. Heros don't get scared.

America pulled out a can of soda, not really wondering where he got it from. He just needed to calm down. He pulled the ring.

He immediately wished he hadn't

The liquid sprayed all over the controls

"Oh, hell!" America yelled. The numbers on the year section of the insition started rising rapidly. "Double hell! He jumped up and started pressing buttons randomly, trying to fix whatever he had done.

Unfortunately, he accidently pressed the "start" button.

The machine started shaking rapidly, knocking the American over before he had time to call out. He briefly wondered what was happening before a blinding light filled the capsule...

The machine crashed into the earth, causing a small expolsion of dust and dirt. The flickering lights on the capsule blinked one last time before turning of completely.

The door swung open and a very motion sick American tumbled out. He fell onto his knees, trying very hard to keep the hamburger he had previously eaten where it belonged.

"Where am I...?" America asked. He looked around him for any signs of what time he could possibly be in.

He had to look again.

The world in front of him was dry and desolate. There were no buildings or even any plants in sight. A hot wind drifted across the land, snapping America out of his intial shock and allowing him to say the first words that came to mind.

"What the hell!?" He still couldn't understand what was infront of him. What could of happened here?

He turned back to the machine. He had to get back to his own time.

"Wha...?" America stared at the once brightly lit capsule. All the buttons were now dull and lifeless. He pressed the start button hopefully, even though he knew that nothing would happen

He was right.

America looked around again. He was stuck in some kind of wasteland, with a broken time machine and no sign of civilisation.

He was stranded.

"...Shit"


	2. Chapter 2

America had gone from shocked to depressed and was now just plain annoyed. What kind of time machine breaks after the first time you use it? Sure, he spilt a little soda on it. That shouldn't be enough to make it stop working completely!

He groaned and sat down heavily next to the stupid piece of junk. He didn't even have his cell phone with him; he had left it at Japan's house. Not that he thought he could have called anyone; America just wanted to play some of his games on it to stop him from dying of boredom. Before the charge ran out that is. Then he really would die of boredom.

There was absolutely nothing there. Except for a few cracks in the ground. Maybe he could count them before he's reduced to inventing his own imaginary friends like England.

He missed England. He missed everyone. And he was never going to see them, or anything actually living again. He might as well-

He blinked. He could see something in the distance. Something moving.

"I must be going crazy" America sighed. He'd only been there for 10 minutes. It had to be a record.

The figure was moving slowly. As it got closer, America could tell that they seemed to be wearing some kind of cloak.

And, most importantly, they seemed human.

America stood up. If this person was real, and not just his deluded imagination, then he might as well see if they could help him with his time machine. It was the future after all. They should have figured this stuff out years ago.

"Hey! Over here!" he yelled, waving his arms frantically. The figure's head jerked towards America. But instead of going to the American, or even waving back, the person turned and ran as fast as they could in the opposite direction.

What the hell? America thought before chasing after them.

Even though they were already far away from America, they weren't very fast. America easily started to close in on the stranger.

"Why are you running?" He called when he was confident that they weren't going to get away. The person looked back in surprise but didn't answer. Instead they just gave a desperate attempt to run faster. America couldn't see them properly, as they had pulled the hood of their clock up when they had started running, but there was something about the person's eyes that seemed familiar...

A loud crack filled the empty space, stopping America in his tracks. The stranger slowed down slightly and looked back again but didn't stop running.

America looked down at his feet. The earth suddenly seemed a lot frailer.

He slowly took another step forward, but this single movement brought a million more crevices into the land.

"Oh, shi-" America couldn't finish his sentence as at that moment the ground beneath his feet collapsed. America yelped as his world filled with darkness...

~ ~

America groaned as he drifted back into consciousness. He opened his eyes slowly, allowing them to adjust to the gloom.

He had no idea where he was.

That's when he realised two things.

1: His arms were bound behind his back.

2: He wasn't alone.

Two cloaked figures stood a little bit away from the American, their hoods pulled down below their eyes, stopping America from seeing their full faces. They were talking to each other quietly, not noticing that America was now awake. Although the person who had been out in the wastelands cloak was black, their cloaks were a dirty brown colour.

"W...what's going on?" America said, trying to pull apart the ropes that held his arms together.

The two hooded figures jumped away from each other in surprise at the sound of America's voice.

"So you're awake" The first one said coldly. America paled as he saw the one who had spoken pull out something from his cloak that could only be described as a gun.

The person walked towards him, slowly raising the gun-like object.

"Who are you?" The second one asked, his voice slightly less harsh then the other one.

America didn't say anything. He was too busy staring at the gun.

"Answer the question!" The first one snapped, brandishing the gun closer to America's forehead.

"A-America! My name's America!" America stammered, his voice coming out higher than he had meant it to.

"Alright, "America", where are you from?" the calmer one asked.

"Um...America?"

If it wasn't for the hood, America could have sworn that the first one was glaring at him.

"Do you think this is funny?" The one with the gun asked, his voice suddenly sounding a lot more dangerous.

"N-no I don't" People might have usually thought that the American was stupid, but even he knew that it was a bad idea to upset a man pointing a gun at you.

The first one stood up and went to their partner.

"What do you think we should do with him?" He asked, not looking away from America.

"He could be a spy; we should probably have him killed" The second one said.

America decided that he didn't like the calm one anymore.


	3. Chapter 3

"You can't just kill me!" America protested, struggling against his bounds.

"We're sorry" The second one said quietly. Judging by the first figures smirk he wasn't very sorry. "But we cannot allow The Leader to find us here- not now."

"The Leader?" America asked, confused. "Who's-"

"That's enough" A different voice said. America looked up in surprise at the new figure who walked in. Just like the other two, his hood was pulled down below his eyes. But this person's cloak was black, the same colour as the person America had seen in the wasteland.

The first person suddenly didn't seem as smug as before. "O-oh, you're- I mean, we were were going to-"

"I know" The black cloaked figure cut in."But you don't need to kill him"

"What? But-"

"I'll take care of him" He finished coldly. America could feel the blood drain from his face.

The two cloaked figures nodded and nervously left the room.

America was left alone with the black cloaked figure.

"You can't do this!" America blurted. "I'm not a spy or whatever. I haven't done anything wrong!"

The person watched the American carefully for a few seconds- before pulling out a small but sharp knife.

He- he's going to- America struggled uselessly against the ropes. The man walked slowly towards him, as if he had all the time in the world.

"You can't do this!" America yelled again. "Look, I'm not from here, I'm not even from this time! You can't-"

The man placed his hand on America's shoulder. "I know" He said quietly- before cutting the ropes that tied the American's arms together.

It took a moment for America to realise what had just happened.

"You...you're letting me go me?" He asked, stunned.

"What did you think I was going to do?" He asked in a way that made the American think he was most likely teasing him.

America decided to ignore this. "But, why...?"

"It's not safe for you here" He said simply.

"Yeah, I figured that out about 5 minutes ago" America replied sarcastically.

The cloaked man pulled the American to his feet. "You need to leave" He said firmly. "How did you get here?"

"Huh...?"

"How did you get to this time?" The man said, a bit more urgently.

"Oh! Well, I have a time machine...it kind of broke though...Wait, did you say that you knew I was from the past? How-"

"There's no time" He snapped. "And anyway, I think I know someone who can fix it." He raised his voice slightly. "You've been listening, haven't you?"

A smaller figure entered the room uncertainly. America blinked. There was no doubting it, this was the same person he had seen in the wasteland.

"So, do you think you can fix it?" The man asked.

"...Probably, it depends how damaged it is" The newest person said quietly.

America wondered to himself how this person could possibly fix it. Only him and Japan knew how it worked!

The man turned to America "Let's go" He said, grabbing the American's wrist.

"Huh? Where...?"

"Your time machine. I told you, you need to get back to your own time"

~*~

The two ran in silence, the hooded man leading the way. The smaller man had said something about "getting the necessary tools" and that he'd meet them there.

Eventually they made it to the hole that America had fallen through.

("The ground was already weak and couldn't support your extra weight"

"Wait, did you just say I was fat?"

"...Whatever gave you that impression?")

They climbed out of the opening and walked in the direction of where the time machine had crashed.

"So we just have to wait for the other guy to come and fix it, right?" America asked when the familar capsule shape came into view.

"Right, I just hope he won't be too long" The slightly smaller man said, taking an anxious look towards the sky.

"Hey, I was wondering, why are you helping me?" America asked what he had been wondering ever since the man had freed him.

"...I'm a friend, let's just leave it at that" He said, obviously wanting to close the subject.

But America didn't.

"But why? Everyone I've met so far has either ran away from me or tried to kill me? Why are you helping me?

"Look, America-"

"Also, how did you know I was from the past? And-" His eyes widened as he realised what the person had just said. "And how do you know my name? I never told you it..."

The man paused as he realised his mistake. "I...I heard you talking to those other two and-"

"Come on! Do you really think I'm going to believe that?"

"Why can't you just except that I'm trying to help you, idiot?"

America stared at the man in front of him. "Actually, you don't have to tell me who you are, I think I've already figured it out." He took a step closer to the mysterious man.

"What are you-?"

America pulled down the hood that had been hiding the main features of the man's face, to reveal messy blond hair and a pair of emerald green eyes.

"Tell me what's going on, England".

~*~

The person in front of him was definitely England. His hair was dirty and his eyes seemed older, but there was no mistaking those eyebrows.

"I guess there's no point in hiding it anymore" England sighed.

"England, what happened here?" America asked, trying to hide the fact that he was actually happy to see someone he knew.

"What do you mean?"

America gestured around him "I mean what happened to make the world...well...like this. It's a complete wasteland!"

England sighed again and continued to walk to the time machine. America briefly wondered if he had even heard the question before going after him. After a few seconds, England spoke again.

"Everyone went to war" He said emotionlessly.

"Huh...?"

"A nuclear war. Everyone was involved, but by the time it actually ended it was too late. The damage had already been done" England said sadly. It was obviously wasn't a good subject for him.

America let this new information sink in as he looked around him. He knew that some countries had come close to starting a nuclear war but he had never thought it would actually happen.

A thought suddenly occurred to the American.

"Hey, England?"

"Yes?"

"If this is some post-nuclear war future, then...are there any zombies?" America asked excited.

"Wait, what?"

"Zombies! 'Cause in video games I've played, there're always zombie in a nuclear war future!" America went on, his eyes shining.

"Only you would be happy at the idea of zombies" England scoffed. "Of course not! How can you be so stupid-" He stopped suddenly.

"England?" America asked, worried about his sudden silence. "Iggy?"

"Heh..." England suddenly fell to his knees, laughing uncontrollably.

"England!" America jumped back, startled by the abrupt change in his personality.

"Y-you! You're so bloody stupid! Oh God, I had nearly forgotten, you-" He managed to splutter before laughing hysterically again.

He's lost it America thought sadly. He's completely lost it.

The laugher countinued for a few more minutes before England noticed the American's worried gaze.

"S-sorry" He said after he had calmed down slightly. "It's been a long time, I nearly forgot how much of an idiot you can be sometimes" He chuckled before standing up.

A long time? America thought. How long-

"Let's go" England's voice cut into America's thoughts. "We need to wait for my friend to come so that he can fix your time machine"

"Your friend...so if you're England, then he must be..."

"You're probably right, but you'll find out for sure soon".


End file.
